Bank of Ireland Ex Bristol and West PIBS Campaign

Bank of Ireland Puts Gun to the Heads of UK Pensioners

BREAKING NEWS: Bank of Ireland gracefully back down..

You may have heard in the papers that that Bank of Ireland is trying to make profits by offering to buy back savings bonds (PIBS) originally issued by the Bristol & West building society at a much lower than the price those savers paid. Bristol & West were bought by Bank of Ireland and Bank of Ireland. Bank of Ireland is threatening to virtually wipe out anyone who does not accept their terms. The savings bond is called Bank of Ireland 13 3/8th perpetual (ex Bristol and West).

FIRST OF ALL SIGN UP TO THE ACTION GROUP EMAIL HERE

THE FACTS:

• Savers are being offered just 20p for every £ they hold as savings. The bonds, because of their high interest rate, should be worth a lot more probably £1.50. Many savers paid as much as £2 for these bonds.
• Many thousands of savers, many of them pensioners, rely on these bonds to provide income for their retirement.
• The bank and Irish government are holding a gun to the heads of savers. If they don’t accept the 20p they say they will pass law in Ireland to take their savings and give them virtually nothing.  The savings are protected under English law. However the Irish state is trying to use legal loopholes to remove the protection and safeguards in place. By accepting the offer you are voting to let them take any remaining bonds from others.
• The bank has given holders only until July 5th (although broker deadlines might be sooner) to respond or they further reduce the amount on offer.
• Some other types of bond are also being targeted but these are mostly held by large institutions like pension funds. Amazingly, these larger holders are being offered more than twice as much plus interest (in Bank of Ireland shares) compared with small holders. It is very unlikely that small savers can participate in this and so will be hung out to dry.

WHAT CAN  YOU DO?

• We have formed an action group and already have over 15% of the bond holders in our group and we intend to stand up against Bank of Ireland. Join it here here This is run by our affiliated site Fixed Income Investments. We will keep you up to date with developments.
• BREAKING NEWS: The international law firm Brown Rudnick is representing holders of our bonds. Click to register with them as a bond holder
• Although not accepting the derisory offer you run the risk of getting nothing, but if 25% of holders reject the offer it will be very hard for Bank of Ireland to remove the  bonds from the hold-outs. The Irish government will have to go to court to try to remove them.
• Ironically Bank of Ireland needs UK savers a lot more than we need them. Bank of Ireland run the Post Office savings accounts in the UK where UK savers have more than £10,000 million of savings. If we were to withdraw our savings this would cripple Bank of Ireland. Do you trust them with your savings after what they are attempting to do to your bonds?
• There is a bond holder meeting scheduled 7th July where Bank of Ireland hope to get 75% of holders to vote to a resolution to allow them to confiscate your bonds. We must vote against this and make sure they are prevented from doing this.
• Write to the FSA you can contactthem at FSA contact us page.
• Write and complain to Bank of Ireland email addresses are Brian Kealy (Head of Capital Management) -  Brian.kealy@Boimail.com or Maria McDonagh (Debt Relations) - Maria.mcdonagh@boigm.com.
• Contact your MP at http://www.writetothem.com/ We are tracking this on our site.
• Click to find out more details about why this is so wrong.

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